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Yes, you read that correctly. Every single employee should be forced to work in the office 5 days a week for at least the next 6 months. It doesn’t mean you need to be there from 9-5 but you need to be there every…single…day, for the next 180 days.
That might sound harsh and reading that might make you angry but it’s a necessary reality.
Prior to the pandemic, flexible work options were being implemented at organizations around the world at what I would call, a steady pace. Even if you were expected to be in the office every day, you likely had some wiggle on room on what those hours were and if you needed to leave for something personal, you had the opportunity to do.
Then came the pandemic and for two years we all worked from home. During this period it became challenging to maintain a cohesive culture, align on vision, focus on strategic business objectives, move from purely focusing on productivity to focusing on innovation, and effectively train new leaders. We collectively became lonely, depressed, devoid of human interaction and connection, and lived in a dystopian science fiction world where we only saw people through a screen.
Our seemingly aligned teams and businesses became fragmented like a shaken up box of puzzle pieces. We tried to put things back together virtually and it failed. Sure we made due with the guise of productivity and being able to work from home but now we are all working in a disjointed and fragmented world.
My argument is we need to spend the next 6 months resetting, realigning, rejuvenating, reimagining, reinvigorating, and redefining. We need to put the puzzle pieces back out to see the picture we are trying to make. After that 6 month period, we should go back to more flexible options as needed.
In the rest of the article I want to share some research which proves this and also explore some reasons for WHY employees should spend at least the next 6 months working from the office. Not only should leaders mandate this but you as an employees should WANT this. It will be in your best interest in terms of career growth, development, alignment, and future-proofing your time at the company you are with.
Let’s jump in…
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